Folkfest moves to Glebe, changes name to CityFolk

The festival – now dubbed CityFolk – will call Lansdowne Park home as organizers make a move to a more central location for music fans.

"The fact that Lansdowne was complete and seeing the new site really inspired us with what we could do there with the festival," said Mark Monahan, the festival's executive and artistic director.

According to Monahan, both parks are similar in size, but Lansdowne offers services Hog's Back Park cannot, which he said will make setting up and operation of the festival much easier.

Lansdowne's great lawn will be the location of the gated main stage for ticket-holders-only.

The area in front of and around the Aberdeen Pavilion will be open to the public and will include craft beer tents and musical programming.

Noise from this past year's festival at Hog's Back prompted a number of complaints from the Glebe neighbourhood, as the sound trickled down the river into their neighbourhood and the festival was ultimately slapped with a $405 fine after its opening night.

To mitigate concerns for 2015, Monahan said he has already met with Capital Coun. David Chernushenko about noise concerns and plans to hold a consultation with the community in the spring.

That was welcome news to Glebe Community Association president Christine McAllister, who added the community does acknowledge events at the park will be coming.

"We will be looking at the noise and making sure that bylaws are followed, but we also know it's just part of living next to the venue," McAllister said.

McAllister said since the park opened, the community has been focused on the day-to-day impacts and as more events occur, the association's Lansdowne Park committee will address community concerns and work with the city and park operator Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group to alleviate them.

"We do plan to take a closer look at the impacts that could happen," she said.

NAME CHANGE

The move to the new location also offered a perfect time to rebrand the festival, said Monahan.

"Since we're moving to the heart of the city, and we want all music fans in Ottawa to feel a kinship with the festival, we felt CityFolk would resonate with them," he said.

Monahan added that in recent years the festival has been drawing a younger crowd and the name change reflects that.

The lineup for the 2015 festival is still to be determined and Monahan said the full lineup will be announced in the spring.

To stay up-to-date with festival news, visit cityfolkfestival.ca.

TD PLACE READY TO ROCK

OSEG officially reopened Lansdowne Park in July, welcoming football back to Ottawa with the Ottawa RedBlacks, and since its opening, the park has seen sellouts for RedBlacks games at TD Place.

Shortly after opening, the park became available for use and this past fall saw some of the planned retail outlets in the park open.

On Dec. 9 Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group announced that the '80s rock band Def Leppard will perform at TD Place on May 4. Tickets go on sale on Dec. 12 at livenation.com.

More information about upcoming events and the park itself is available at oseg.ca and tdplace.ca.

If you don’t find the information you need on these pages, please visit ottawa.ca/newlansdowne, or to contact the City directly by email at newlansdowne@ottawa.caor by calling 3-1-1 (press 1 for English, then 5 for the Lansdowne line). If necessary, you may also contact the project manager, Marco Manconi, at 613-580-2424 ext. 43229, or by email.